Subj : Anecdotes about translators
To   : alexander koryagin
From : Ardith Hinton
Date : Thu Sep 30 2021 23:36:13

Hi, Alexander!  Recently you wrote in a message to All:

ak>  I am not sure I know the correct word. In Russia we 
ak>  use the word "a male goat" as an idiomatic sleng word 
ak>  meaning absence of respect, or when you have a 
ak>  resentment to somebody. 


          When I looked up "twit" in THE FREE DICTIONARY I found quite a lot of stuff you might find useful, including definitions & synonyms.  In summary... a twit is a foolish, stupid, annoying, and/or insignificant person.  I'm guessing that is more or less what you were thinking of here.  :-)



ak>  Does the following story sound funny in English and 
ak>  can it be improved?


          Yes, on both counts.  Long explanation to follow... [grin].



ak>  Three men from the USA delegation came to Russia and 
ak>  went to a big plant to sign a contract. The director 
ak>  sees them into his cabinet
                        |private office


          Why not use the same verb tense throughout the story?  I know we have discussed this issue already... but a tense change in mid-paragraph, unless the logic is obvious to me, still sounds wrong according to what I was taught.  :-Q



ak>  and says to his secretary girl, "Well dear -- 
                     |female secretary



ak>  one glass of cognac for me and three tea for these 
ak>  goats." 


          IOW he's such an important person he can drink alcoholic beverages on the job without offering any to persons he regards as inferior to himself... or at least he thinks he is.  My sympathies lie with the translator already.  :-))



ak>  One man from the delegation says, "two tea, please, 
ak>  I am a translator."

   
          Ah... so this story is not a commentary on the status of women.  But to be fair, I'm writing as if the translator could be male or female.
   

          On a sociological level, the translator may be thinking s/he works as hard as (and probably gets paid less than) other folk attending this meeting... yet, like the secretary, s/he is a highly skilled individual without whose help these guys would be unable to do their jobs.  And if s/he's expected to talk as much as all of them do the need to wet his/her whistle may be greater.


          In English, the translator's response could be a play on words too:

      * I often hear young servers nowadays saying e.g. "two coffees" or
        "two teas" when they mean "two cups of [whatever]".  Perhaps the
        translator has noticed this phenomenon as well.  Either way, two
        or more generally --> pluralization of a noun or pronoun.

      * When people have more than one variety of tea in stock, they may
        ask which a guest prefers.  My mother-in-law used to offer China
        tea or India tea.  I reckon that in such situations a translator
        might say "One cup of each, please... I'm bilingual."

     * Depending on the intonation, and on whether s/he's addressing the
        secretary or the director, the translator's reply could be heard
        as "to tease"... an allusion to the director's bad manners.  And
        s/he sets a good example by adding "please", which he didn't do.


          I see the translator's response as amusing when I think of situations in which e.g. a male teacher nearing retirement disagreed with our principal at staff meetings from time to time.  I also notice that the actual words could be interpreted in more than one way, as is very common with jokes in English.  :-)




--- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+
 * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)

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